A variety of industrial and scientific operations require a very precise movement of objects along a linear path. As one example, products which must have a very precise thickness or a very flat surface are tested by mounting the products on a translatable housing or bed which then travels the products along a dimension sensing gauge or the like. The disk reading heads used in computers are an example of products which are tested or certified in this manner. The specimen holding stages of scanning microscopes are another example of mechanisms requiring very accurate translation and positioning of objects.
One type of translating device that is used for such purposes includes a rail which is supported at the ends and a housing or platform for supporting objects that is traveled along the rail by a motor or other means. The housing has a guideway passage through which the rail extends and the walls of the guideway serve to prevent movement of the housing relative to the rail in directions other than along the rail.
The accuracy of testing operations of the above described kind depends on the degree to which such unwanted movements of the housing are inhibited. In order to obtain high accuracy it is necessary that the rail and the guideway walls be manufactured with great precision and with very tight clearances. Surfaces of the guideway that slide along surfaces of the rail should have exactly the same orientations as the adjacent rail surfaces.
Manufacture of the components with the most desirable degree of precision is at best very costly if conventional metal machining techniques are used. It is particularly difficult to conform the orientation of the walls of the guideway with the orientation of the rail surfaces while also providing a predetermined small clearance.
Thus a high precision linear slide construction that can be manufactured in a simpler and more economical manner would be highly advantageous.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems discussed above.